Rooftops [Open]

[wind_of_wutai]

Dawn had broken gently over the rooftops of Midgar some hours ago, the usual skyline broken only by the lone silhouette of the young materia bearer sat relishing the fresh morning breeze through his hair and robes to calm his slightly frantic self

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[cloakofcrimson]

Kimbley grinned. From the way the kid was looking at him, you'd think he'd stepped in something. And the kid was blatantly Wutaian; it was something about the eyes, and while he seemed pretty fluent there was still that trace of an accent even in those two little words. Kimbley had blown up enough Wutaians to know one when he saw one, thank you, and he had the medals to prove it.

The kid seemed a little young to recognize Kimbley on sight, so he was probably just an arrogant little bitch. A talented little bitch, though, Kimbley would grant him. The kid hadn't been anywhere near the fountain when it tore itself to pieces. The alchemist had a good dose of arrogance himself and generally appreciated arrogance in people when they could actually back it up. Still didn't like the look the boy was giving him, though.

"Nice," he offered regardless, too curious to be turned off by bemused and disdainful looks. "Blatant and noisy destruction of civic property and thousands of taxpayer dollars down the drain, but hell, I appreciate that sort of thing. How'd you do it?"

[wind_of_wutai]

If there had been a visible wariness meter hovering about Luc's head, that grin could have been seen to shoot it straight to the end. How odd to be grinning at him when he was... obviously displeased by his mere presence. Most had sodded off by now. But then again this was the continent and continentals didn't seem to understand the issue of personal space he took for granted back home.

It was enough to make him nostalgic for the relative peace his apprenticeship of Leknaat afforded him.

Peace and intelligence he added, rolling his eyes subtley at the remarks being made. "It is only blatant," Luc began in such a monotone it would be clear, to those that knew him, he was getting slightly irked, "if I am known as the origin." He blinked and his expression remained stubbornly defiant of the man being impressed.

Looking him over again, Luc decided to briefly let off some steam in the form of a short caustic comment on his companion's fashion sense.

"But seeing the state of yourself, I see no reason that I should be blamed for this."

[cloakofcrimson]

Kimbley didn't bother to look down at himself reflexively. For one, he knew quite well what he was covered in; for another, he made it kind of a point not to take his eyes off of kids who could apparently rip stone fountains to rubble. But he didn't like the insinuation that this brat was going to leave him to take the blame for destruction than - for once - HADN'T been caused by him, although he didn't let his grin waver. But his eyes, hard and malevolent at the best of times, glinted dangerously as they narrowed.

"You're Wutaian, aren't you?" he asked, a seeming non sequitur. The kid might've been too young to recognize him, but he ought to have heard stories...hell, Kimbley had a reputation on the mainland, and he hadn't even blown up that many people around here.

[wind_of_wutai]

"Yes," Luc snapped levelly and almost immediately upon being asked about his heritage. Scarecly caring what the consequences were, he'd be damned if he was going to be taken for one of these uncouth opportunists.

So the man was a railing racist, eh? Or at least that was the only conclusion the young mage boy could draw if he was going to make such a statement out of the blue. ♪Soran, soran♪ his mind interjected, as if trying to subconsciously jump into the argument. Luc rolled his eyes and assumed his clothes had been what sparked his addressee's interest - he never exactly tried to fit in on the mainland and it had often found him resentment before.

"And you're a jackass. What of it."

[cloakofcrimson]

"Not a very good representative, are you," Kimbley remarked, unimpressed by the boy's bravado. Young enough to be rebellious, evidently; Wutaians, he'd thought, were quite respectful, and this kid was anything but.

"I was just gonna ask if you'd ever heard of the Crimson Alchemist. Most Wutaians have." Well, that might be overstating his infamy a bit, but there were certainly a lot of craters in Wutai that he was almost solely responsible for and a lot of those piddly little villages nearly wiped out that he'd had a large role in. Most Wutaians might not know about him, but there was still a fairly large percentage that had to have heard of him, or at least his explosions. Some of them had to have been loud enough.

[wind_of_wutai]

Luc felt himself go slightly cold. He kept the blanching mostly inward but a small amount found it's way onto his face. "You're rather cocky," he sighed flatly. "My own brother doesn't know who you are." And what a lucky little sap he is.

It was true, being only nine at the time of the war, most names and specifics had been too vague to be remembered or had simply been forgotten due to the handicap of age. However, time with the someone as all knowing as his mentor as such a huge sense of national pride had meant he had uncovered a lot of preceding information on the war he loathed so much.

This man's name apparently being among it all.

"I on the other hand," he continued suppressing the sudden surge of biting rage within him, very sure it was making the materia embedded in his chest react in a more visibly... luminous way than he would normally allow, "am perfectly aware of your little endeavours."

[cloakofcrimson]

"I guess you've got a point," Kimbley admitted with false contrition, noting with private delight that the boy's face actually got a little paler. Well, SOMEBODY had heard of him, anyway... "Most Wutaians who'd know about me aren't really around to pass the story on, are they?" If he didn't appear the least bit regretful, this was because Kimbley wasn't that good of an actor. That he prevented himself looking outright gleeful was, really, the best Luc could expect from him. "In any case, if you know who I am than you should know not to mess with me, because that fountain was child's play next to what I can do. And it's not like public opinion's really all that sympathetic to Wutaians, either...I bet even somebody like me could get off if I went after a Wutaian mage wantonly destroying our city, hm?"

The alchemist's eyes finally broke away from Luc's face when spots on the kid's chest began to glow brightly enough to be seen through his shirt. Materia...well, that went a long way towards providing Kimbley with an explanation, and his grin widened accordingly. "Oh, now this is interesting," he murmured. "Embedded materia...is this something Wutai's been doing for a long time, or did they actually take their cue from us for a change?" He grinned and, to explain his words, pulled one hand from his pocket and opened it, palm facing Luc, to display the tattoo and the faintly glowing shards of materia beneath it.

[wind_of_wutai]

"It's an old technique," Luc spat, feeling the materia buzzing and glowing lightly beneath his skin. He idly wondered if the abhorrence showed enough on his face to the man opposite him. His power he didn't mind; the fact he had had little choice in the matter, he reviled.

This ..."person" had no idea of whom he was dealing with.

Calming the flow of power to the shards, he attempted to stem the shine of the materia. "You yourself have little comprehension of the power I can wield," he offered, by way of further explanation. Or what he would consider explanation. "I do not suggest you try anything with me," he added flatly, hands firmly at his sides and staring pointedly at his antagonist.

[cloakofcrimson]

"Is it?" Kimbley raised an eyebrow, genuinely interested despite the boy's obvious disgust for who or what he was. As if he didn't see that expression all the time... "Pretty new thing on the mainland, but then Wutai's always had it one up on us when it comes to magic and materia. Guess I shouldn't be surprised."

He finally returned his gaze to Luc's eyes, smirking almost insolently. "Hey, my days of blowing up Wutaians are over...more's the pity. But if you think you're going to make me take the heat for an explosion I didn't cause, I could always reevaluate the wisdom of coming out of retirement." He stuffed his hand back into his pocket, not wanting any curious eyes to spot the bloodstains. "Who was it that said that killing ONE person is really bad, but that one MORE person barely registers on the karmic scales?" He considered for a few moments, then shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter. But as an expert on destruction myself, some friendly advice - if you can't take pride in your abilities, then why bother using them?"

[wind_of_wutai]

What an impudent prick. There was not a chance that Luc was going to be scared off by the likes of this degenerate. The young mage's voice, light though it typically was, took on a more sinister edge as he quickly snapped back something he might else have been provoked into saying.

"Do not tell me to take pride in abilities I do not want," he said levelly, almost an octave lower than he had been previously.

Inwardly rolling his eyes at what he'd just said, he continued. "And I'm not sure what "karmic scale" you operate on, but I assure you that a death would send a shockwave down any onen of them."

Allowing himself to glare now, Luc waited on angry tenterhooks for this alchemist to make some kind of move against him...

[cloakofcrimson]

Kimbley laughed. He couldn't help it. For one thing, the kid looked righteously pissed, and that certainly made up for the disdainful look from earlier. And for another, that this kid thought that a death would bother him or whatever karma he possessed at all...

Abilities he didn't want, hm? Maybe Wutai was a bit behind the mainland in that it didn't ask people first whether they wanted chunks of materia in them before sticking them in under the skin. Mildly interesting information, but not applicable to anything Kimbley could think of.

Once he'd had his laugh, he gave the boy a thoughtful once-over. "For someone who doesn't want his abilities, you were certainly making free with them a minute ago. Seems like if you didn't want them, you wouldn't be using them unless you had to." He raised an eyebrow. "Was the fountain threatening you?"

[wind_of_wutai]

Laughter? What, pray tell, was there to be laughing about? And... if Luc didn't know any better he'd swear this contemptuous little rat was now having a go at lecturing him.

"You have no right..." he started to say but under the stress it came out in Wutaian. Just as well. It wasn't particularly awe-inspiring.

"No. Were the villages threatening you?" he said with a menacing calm, echoing in the sharp sheen that radiated throughout the materia in his chest. Luc's riling had spread into an attack-mode of sorts. If this 'crimson' one made one false step he was ready to blow him across the rooftops.

[cloakofcrimson]

Wow, Kimbley had really gotten the kid going to have goaded him into slipping into Wutaian in a public place...the mainland still had its issues with Wutai and its inhabitants, and you didn't find any Wutaian on the mainland except in crappy restaurants that wouldn't know fresh seafood if it made a pass at their wives.

Let's see, it had been awhile, but the word no in Wutaian was one of the words he'd been intimately acquainted with. And - let's see - right? Ah, that made the rest of it click into place fairly easily.

Not many soldiers had bothered to learn even the bare basics of the language of their enemies, but Kimbley was intelligent enough to recognize the importance of knowing what one's enemies were saying. Particularly when they didn't know you could understand...

"No," he replied to Luc's question with a smirk. "But, see, I like what I can do...so I don't feel restricted to putting my talents to use only when absolutely necessary."

Hmm. The kid's materia was starting to glow pretty alarmingly. Kimbley wisely decided not to press the interview any further; he had to watch out for himself, after all, given that if this kid somehow managed to off him the military would probably (discreetly) give him a general vote of thanks and a medal the size of a buffet plate.

Anyway, the kid had on a SeeD uniform and it couldn't be hard to track down a Wutaian with some green materia shards in his chest. Armed with that description Kimbley could protect himself against any accusations of blowing up the fountain himself reasonably well, so no point in hanging around.

"I've gotta get going. Later, kid." With a grin and a bastardized (what other kind would Kimbley give?) salute, the Crimson Alchemist turned and sauntered off - keeping one ear on the goings on behind him, just in case the Wutaian had any bright ideas.